Jun 8th 2012, 7:01:57
Boxcar bots are fixed, have a good summer! :)
gl;wr (good length, will read) version:
OK, I think I fixed the news, so thanks to qz installing curl earlier today. :)
I'm completely wiped and did these updates after a crazy long day of work and commuting, so I'm not 100% sure it's perfect, but let's see. It's not worse. News and Scores are the two I focused on and the news is reconciling with IRC data from FFA correctly.
I'm not trying to rant about this aspect but it's going to come off that way. At some point it would be nice if more altruistic, trustworthy folks with the skills to get things accomplished would step up and start helping support this community through hosting. The reasons that qz and I (and now Zarcon, and formerly slag) were able to have the background to work on the game was because of our work with hosting sites.
At this stage we've worked very hard to give the community the tools to create some pretty neat things in terms of clan hosting but we haven't had a single public, multi-clan hosting site created since EE started. I guess what I'm saying is that at some point the community is going to need to start acting like a community again and not simply expect the same handful of people who have been keeping hosting sites going for 5-6 years (during E2025 too) to keep doing it forever.
So it shouldn't bother anyone that Boxcar was broken because I was too busy -- life happens. However, it should bother everyone that no one stepped up and made something new and better at a time when it would have been great to do so.
--- END BOXCAR/ADMIN RELATED CONTENT ---
This next piece of material is fairly simple. It's called "free floating hostility." Seventeen minor Alliance server items I'm bored with, tired of, and pissed at. So I hope you're ready for a little random anger. (and if you get this reference, mad props to you)
Hosting:
-I'm still incredibly busy this summer so my focus will be on offline things, but the one thing I will be working on is new hosting stuff with a group from PDM/MD. It'll be internal for at least a while based on how it's being developed.
LaF:
- Further to the last point, apologies to all the awesome LaFfers who were great testers and idea folks for Boxcar, but your leaders did their best to burn bridges with me and assure me that all trust in me was lost.
-Let me assure everyone that the decision to out those guys was not political and our post accurately reflected the information we had from the server. I even continued to update relevant threads in the following days despite the fact I didn't really have the time to do it.
-It still boggles my mind that to some folks in LaF, the net result of TC stealing a database password, exploiting it in potentially many forms for probably 2+ years and passing it off to the active Don of the alliance, who used it to form the basis of his political planning, is that I'm the bad guy for not coddling LaF's interests.
-Part of the reasoning why ppl in LaF think that I'm "the next Duque" and that I was all too eager to throw LaF under the bus was because I made a post chastising LaF for becoming everything that we together fought against for so long. That's my right as a Don and a Godfather, however, my access was completely cut for it. I can't even begin to count the number of times other Dons and Godfathers criticized other leaders, myself included.
-When I first realized that all this was true and it was going to be a big deal, I expected that I would be going back to help repair LaF's credibility and try to make the server a better place, probably in a supporting role alongside folks like H4 and SG. Detmer can confirm this as I was talking to him about it, but after talking to a few LaF folks, it was clear that I was seen as part of the problem.
MD:
-You're a better alliance that doesn't need to try and complete the goal you weren't able to complete in 2006. The fact that at least one MD leader was telling PDM leaders that I was a LaF spy and that I shouldn't be allowed into PDM leadership is just so wrong. I got more intel on MD's planning from LaF than I got from MD. Ironically, that intel was got through stolen information which is horrible, but for quite a while it was unfortunate that a traditional PDM enemy was giving us planning information that our FDP wasn't sharing with us; especially when we were expected to take part in round 2 of the conflict.
Major war alliances:
-You guys honestly need to reform how you play this game or there's not going to be a game for you to play. Stop trying to push the buck to the staff to make all the changes through code so that you can keep continuing your failed policies; you can do things to improve the game as-is. This is a community, you get out of it what you put into it and too often what you put into it is a net negative for the community.
-If given the chance I am 100% confident that nearly all if not all major alliances would also abuse a password or other exploit to gain a competitive advantage over their enemies. This has happened time and time again through the history of the game.
Alliance Leaders:
-I'm incredibly tired of the lack of ethics, morals or just general good behaviour by many players. As leaders, it's time to start reigning in the crappy politics of lying, cheating, sketchy spying, and doing anything you can to gain a competitive advantage over an opponent. It's not all leaders by any means, but I can definitely point to at least one person who is willing to do "dirty" things in every major alliance.
-Further to the previous point, alliances need to stop with the crazy conspiracy-focused planning where all wars must be planned to be slam-dunk wins where the war is over by the end of a weekend. I don't understand how anyone finds it fun to build a war-focused country all round and then only use it 2-3 days at a time. Some of that is due to mechanics, but alliances could maybe try to take on a challenging opponent some time and not keep looking for easy victories.
Trolls:
-To everyone who flamed me about how horrible it was that I was playing in LaF while being an admin and having opinions... how do you feel now that I haven't been in LaF for over a year? Is the game a better place? Is your alliance better off for it? You guys were so busy focusing on trying to tear down my credibility that you didn't realize that I was holding LaF back from it's naturally more destructive state.
-My views on what's "good for the server" have never changed with the political fortunes of the alliances I played with, but everyone else's argument seems to have flipped over time. Except SoF... so at least they've been consistent. I stopped pushing the argument because, honestly, this is how I felt at that point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AAP7zORyWA
-The fact that many trolls seized on the smallest, most inconsequential elements of our initial post re:hackings to try and spin it to paint LaF as a group of cheaters is not accurate and I told everyone that numerous times.
Personal:
-There are two ways for this game to succeed. One is for the existing community to become the positive community it used to be when Earth thrived. The other is to completely rebuild the game focusing on a completely different market of players. This game was essentially built for the Alliance server community and I don't feel that the community, as a whole, has done enough to temper the polarized players who are currently running the major alliances on this server.
-Some folks need to learn to leave the game in the game and remember that it is, indeed, a game. We should be treating each other as competitors; not mortal enemies.
-I spend so much of my very limited EE time dealing with drama-related items that I haven't even looked at the EE game code in months. We all want to make the game better, but time and time again, it's the drama that needs our attention. It's so incredibly frustrating.
--- END HOSTILITY ---
I re-read this and I really don't like how I wrote this post, but all of that has to be said at some point. Apologies if I pissed anyone off.
Like I've said a dozen times before, I'm super busy this summer (busiest one I can remember) and there's a lot of things in flux, so I'm essentially taking the summer off from active development and won't be around all that much. This was planned before the stupid drama stuff happened, and that was indeed what pulled me back in up to this point.
So to everyone (and I mean EVERYONE), I wish you all a great summer (or winter) and when I am able to start putting time toward development again I hope that I'll be returning to a better server.
Cheers,
Dave
See Original Post
Earth Empires Staff
pangaea [at] earthempires [dot] com
Boxcar - Earth Empires Clan & Alliance Hosting
http://www.boxcarhosting.com